Ying McGuire lives the American dream. After immigrating to the United States from China to earn a master’s degree, she was recruited by a computer company and now is vice president of Technology Integration Group (TIG), a global technology-solutions business.
Along the way, she’s established herself as a leader in Austin, Texas. As co-founder of the Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce, she helps attract international small-business owners and investors to the state, already home to over 1,400 companies headquartered outside the U.S.
“For a global business, coming to the U.S. market isn’t just a good idea. It’s a must,” she says.
Advisory role
TIG provides IT solutions and systems integration for companies from the Fortune 500 to small businesses owned by veterans, women and minorities. It has 25 offices in the United States, Canada and China and partnerships with technology giants that operate worldwide.
McGuire also is one of 16 business executives on the U.S. Investment Advisory Council, a body that advises Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on attracting investments and enterprises to the U.S. and encouraging international companies already here to expand.
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McGuire has taken part in the Commerce Department’s annual SelectUSA Investment Summit, where investors from other countries connect with U.S. officials and hear peers’ experiences opening branches or new businesses in the United States.
At past summits, McGuire says, she met “new business partners, mentors, customers and friends, of course.”
America’s track record
Investors are attracted to the United States’ record of innovation, from the Ford Model T of the early 1900s to the iPhone of today, she says. The business climate encourages individual creativity and ingenuity.
“I grew up in a top-down system,” McGuire says. But the American system “breeds a workforce of risk-takers willing to make mistakes, innovate and change the world.”
The 2017 SelectUSA Summit, taking place June 18–20 at a Maryland convention center across the Potomac River from Washington, will help investors make connections and business owners find opportunities to expand across the U.S.
